Elliot Spitzer Update: Misplaced Priorities Compromise Needed Medicaid Investigations

In a previous post about New York Attorney General Elliot Spitzer’s apparent intent to retry former Bank of America Corp. broker Theodore Sihpol, who was acquitted on 29 of 33 counts brought against him (the jury hung at 11-1 to acquit on the other four counts), I criticized Mr. Spitzer thusly:

So, Sihpol was one vote away from acquittal on the four remaining counts — and Spitzer is going through with a new trial?

Any other prosecutor would cut his losses, let it go, and allow Sihpol to get on with his not-guilty life. Instead, we have an abuse of prosecutorial discretion, a disgraceful waste of New York State taxpayer dollars, and an inevitable diversion of legal resources away from other more meaningful cases.

It turns out that the “diversion of legal resources” I was concerned about has indeed occurred.

An OpinionJournal.com piece by Ken Langone on the weakness of Spitzer’s case against former New York Stock Exchange head Dick Grasso (”Boondoggle of a Case”) makes this interesting reference (bold is mine):

And while his office recently said it is low on funds to pursue Medicaid fraud, he is devoting multiple lawyers to this case–which will benefit the state not one nickel. Medicaid spending by the way costs this state more than a quarter of its budget, in excess of $40 billion.

On Spitzer’s watch, Medicaid fraud in New York has become a statewide embarrassment (last item on July 22 at link; bold is mine):

New York politicians are scrambling for cover after a scathing investigation by The New York Times concluded the state is doing little to stop fraudsters from plundering the state’s Medicaid health program. Billions of dollars are stolen each year from taxpayer-funded Medicaid, making New York Medicaid the most expensive in the nation. AG Eliot Spitzer, who oversees Medicaid fraud investigations, blamed the legislature for failing to pass his anti-fraud measures. Legislative leaders say they’ve already done a lot to curb fraud, and Gov. George Pataki has created a new post of inspector general to monitor anti-fraud programs. One case the Times highlighted was a dentist who filed claims for 991 procedures in a single day. (See UPDATE excerpt: The NY Times estimated a 40% loss due to waste and fraud–Ed.)

Obviously, I’m not the only one reading Mr. Spitzer’s gripe as “we don’t have enough money.”

Elliot Spitzer has plenty of money and resources. It’s just that he has consciously chosen NOT to devote them to Medicaid fraud. His total proposed budget for 2005-06 (which I believe was passed intact) was $12 million (6%) higher than 2004-05, but he only added a relative pittance ($731,000, barely covering inflation) to Medicare fraud pursuit:

Source: Public Protection and General Government Budget (link to it
can be found here; actual document is a 112-page PDF)

But why worry about boring Medicaid fraud (a “mere” $2 billion problem; see middle of Page 2 at link) when you’re running for governor?

The skewed priorities show why Mr. Spitzer should resign, devote all of his energies to the office he covets, and let now-Governor Pataki appoint an Attorney General who will devote his or her energies to looking out for New York citizens, taxpayers, and crime victims, and who won’t be using the number of appearances on Page 1 of The New York Times as his or her measure of success.
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UPDATE: Here is better evidence that Spitzer and RINO Governor Pataki want “mo’ money” (i.e., higher taxes) to pay for Medicaid investigations (instead of reducing the $11 million line item in the graphic called “Special Revenue Funds,” which I suspect should be renamed “Elliot’s Excellent Business-Bashing Adventures”). And check out The New York Times’ estimate of the extent of Medicaid losses (in bold):

ALBANY, N.Y. The Republican Pataki administration and the office of Democratic Attorney General Eliot Spitzer agree that more staff are needed to combat Medicaid fraud and waste.
Pataki administration officials, meanwhile, criticized a July report by The New York Times that put them on the defensive during an Assembly hearing focusing on combatting Medicaid fraud and waste.

The newspaper concluded the Pataki administration’s Health Department and Spitzer’s Medicaid Fraud Unit failed to root out most fraud and abuse. The newspaper used records and experts to estimate that as much as 40 percent of the multibillion dollar program is lost each year.

Even though The Times is prone to having to making many errors requiring many corrections, I don’t know of any that have been required to their Medicaid report.